A Love Unparalleled
by ducktapedmoose
Summary: The promised sequel to 'Parallels'. There was no way things could be that easy for Harm and Mac. PG-13 just in case


A Love Unparalleled  
  
AN: This is the promised sequel to 'Parallels'. Thanks for all the positive feedback on that, and I'm sorry I couldn't get this one out sooner. Here it goes. I won't beg for reviews because that's unbecoming and I hate sounding desperate, because I'm not. I just hope you like the story.  
  
Standard Disclaimers apply. ------------- From 'Parallels':  
  
"You still want kids, right?" I nod.  
  
"Yep. Three, at least." I say. She looks confused.  
  
"Why three?" She asks. I grin at her.  
  
"I don't know. I just like that number." I say. She nods, smiling widely.  
  
"I like it too."  
  
Everything seems to be okay now, and it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I guess I owe it all to my dad, who is still looking out for me today. Thanks, dad, for helping me pull my life together.  
  
------- "If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude." -Maya Angelou -------  
  
Mac's Apartment Georgetown  
  
So he loves me. Harmon Rabb loves me. I knew it, I knew he felt something for me. There are times that I look at him and my insides melt as a result of the look on his face. He's so intense, so focused, and when that focus is on me, I know that I've never been more loved in my life.  
  
But everything isn't perfect yet. Harm left about twenty minutes ago, after we realized that we've both still got significant others, that he's still got Renee and I've still got Mic.  
  
As excited as I am about the revelations that came out between Harm and I tonight, I can't help but wonder why it happened. It's as if he suddenly realized that I'm here, that I love him. When he left, he didn't say anything about breaking up with Renee. He just said,  
  
'I'll see you at work tomorrow, Mac. Goodnight.'  
  
Talk about a complete turnaround. Earlier, before remembering Renee and Mic, he had been so affectionate, so in love with me. I wonder now if he was just scrambling, trying to get under my skin before I can marry Mic.  
  
A knock on the door jars me from my thoughts, and my heart leaps in my chest. It's Harm, it's got to be. I jump from my spot on the couch and run to the door, opening it without looking out the peephole.  
  
"Mic, hi." I say, recovering from the shock of seeing my fiancee instead of my partner at the door. He leans in and kisses my cheek, and I suddenly remember how sweet he is.  
  
"Hey luv. How are you?" He asks as he steps into the apartment. I shrug, closing the door and turning to him. He takes me in his arms and looks at me lovingly.  
  
"I'm all right. You?" I ask him, looking up at him and fighting the feeling gnawing at me. What is that?  
  
"I'm great. I was thinking you'd want to do dinner." He says, leaning forward to kiss me on the lips. I kiss him back, allowing my eyes to drift shut for a second before I pull away. I chew on my lower lip for a second, looking at him intently. "What is it, luv?" He asks.  
  
"Mic...I need to talk to you about something." I say, watching the joy in his eyes turn to apprehension. He nods, releasing me from his arms. I take his hand and lead him to the couch, sitting him down and dropping to sit next to him, facing him.  
  
"Mic, Harm came by earlier." I say, looking at him. He nods slowly.  
  
"Okay. Was he all right?" He asks, not really asking because he cares about Harm. He's asking because he knows how I worry about Harm. I nod.  
  
"Oh, he's fine. He-he told me that he's in love with me. He asked me to marry him..." I say, a little hesitant, scared of what his reaction will be. He looks surprised.  
  
"He did? Wow, I didn't think he had it in him. What did you say?" He asks, surprisingly calm. I shrug.  
  
"I told him...I told him that I'm in love with him too. That I want to be with him." I say. I feel so horrible, thinking back on my words to Harm. Mic doesn't deserve this.  
  
"Damn." He mutters, glancing away from me for a second. "It sounds like you've made a decision, Sarah." He says sadly. I shake my head.  
  
"No, that's just it, Mic. Once Harm and I realized that we were still attached to Renee and you, things were awkward and he left. I think I need to talk to him again." I say. I'm hoping for his understanding here. He nods.  
  
"I think you do too. I mean, it's not every day you find someone that...well, someone that is so deep in you that you need ten months to decide whether to marry another person. You know?" He asks, a little sadly. I feel horrible.  
  
"Mic, I do love you. Don't get me wrong. But I don't think that I can keep being with you when I've got the feelings that I do for Harm." I say, desperate for him to understand. He nods again.  
  
"I know. Just...take the night to think about it. You hang on to the ring, talk to Harm if that's what you want to do, and let me know tomorrow what you want. I'll wait for you, Sarah. I'll be here if you want me." He says, standing up as he speaks. Then he reaches down and touches my cheek softly, and I lean into the touch of the man that wants to marry me.  
  
"Thank you, Mic." I whisper as he walks away. He nods, then opens the door and he's gone.  
  
This all got so confusing so fast.  
  
Mic was so understanding, he really is a good man. And I wasn't lying when I said that I love him. He's all that I could hope for in a husband, and he's willing to give me the family that I want. The only problem is that what I feel for Harm is even stronger than that, it goes beyond all the boundaries that I've ever established for feeling for other people...  
  
I need to talk to him.  
  
-------- Harm's Apartment North of Union Station 35 Minutes Later  
  
He isn't here. I find myself now sitting in my car in the parking area of his building, waiting.  
  
Waiting.  
  
That's something I've never been able to do when it comes to Harm. When he left to fly, I went on with my life, without him. I didn't wait for him. When he asked me for more time on the ferry, I didn't wait for him. Instead, I got engaged to Mic, the man that had been pursuing me since the day I met him. It seems ironic that I've fallen in love with Harm, the man that's been running away from me since the day I met him.  
  
Headlights' sweeping across the wall in front of my car breaks me from my inner conflict. Harm's SUV pulls into the space next to my car, and Harm steps out as I get out of my own car. We look at each other across the top of my car, just looking. He looks down at his shoes for a second, then walks around to the back of my car.  
  
Taking a deep breath, I walk back to meet him there. We look at each other again, this time from two feet apart rather than seven. He looks into my eyes for eleven seconds before he speaks.  
  
"I broke up with her." He says. My heart speeds up a couple of beats, and I nod.  
  
"I talked to Mic. I told him what happened...with us." I say, my voice caught in my throat now. He nods.  
  
"Well...What do we do now?" He asks. I look at the street for a second, then back at him.  
  
"Harm, I-What made you come over to my apartment tonight and just tell me that you love me? Did you lose a dare or something?" I ask, making a petty attempt at lightening the situation. Harm's eyes don't stray from mine.  
  
"No. I-I had a glimpse." He says, hesitating before telling me. I can't help the skeptical eyebrow that shoots up.  
  
"You had a what?" I ask him. He looks frustrated, and he glances at his feet.  
  
"A glimpse. You won't believe this, but...Last night my father appeared to me. He said that he wanted to help me with you. When I woke up this morning, I was in our house, and you were my wife. It seemed like the real deal-we woke up in the same bed, we kissed good morning, we tried to sneak a quickie in before the kids got too rowdy..." He trails off, looking at me with a helpless face. "It was great."  
  
I cannot believe what I'm hearing.  
  
"You just had a dream, Harm." I say, dismissing his 'glimpse'. He shakes his head, eager, probably, to prove me wrong.  
  
"That's what I thought at first too, Mac. But then my dad came back after you went to call someone to baby-sit the kids so we could have a night to ourselves, and he explained that it was a parallel universe, in which I had kissed you on the ferry instead of, well, doing what I did. Then I woke up and I was standing at your door, ready to tell you that I love you." He explains. I'm so confused right now.  
  
"Harm, you really expect a sane, rational person to believe that your father showed you a glimpse into a parallel universe, just to make you realize that you're in love with me? You must be joking." I say, trying so hard not to sound like I think he's crazy. I don't, really. I just think he's been under a little too much stress lately.  
  
"Sarah, I don't know how to make you understand...Maybe we should talk tomorrow, after you've had some time to think...But here's where I stand. If you want me, I'm here. If you're having seconds thoughts about what we said earlier at your apartment, that would be perfectly normal. This has been a helluva day." He says. Why are Mic and Harm both being so understanding? It just makes letting one of them go even harder. I nod.  
  
"I guess I'll see you tomorrow then." I say, and he nods too. Staring at my feet, I get back in my car and drive away, wondering what the hell is going on with the world today.  
  
-------- I've only been asleep for an hour and thirteen minutes when I feel the need to wake up. I feel a presence in my apartment, someone else is here. Getting cautiously out of bed and grabbing my sidearm from the bedside table, I wander quietly out into the living room.  
  
For a second, I think the tall figure standing by the window is Harm.  
  
When he turns around and I see the mustache and the old-fashioned Navy uniform and bomber jacket, I know exactly who I'm looking at. And it isn't Harm.  
  
"You?" I ask, before I can stop myself. He nods. I must be dreaming.  
  
"Colonel MacKenzie." He says, his voice startling me. It's such a different sound than Harm's, but coming from a body so eerily similar.  
  
"Please, sir, call me Mac." I say, but I'm not sure why. This is only a dream. Harmon Rabb, Sr. laughs.  
  
"You're being awfully polite to someone that you think is a dream, Mac." He says. I smile too, nodding. How did he know?  
  
"Yes, sir. Dream or not, you are my best friend's father. He has a lot of respect for you, and so do I." I reply. He nods, crossing his arms over his chest and taking a step away from the window.  
  
"I've known since the day that you and Harm met that you would be the one." He says. I'm confused.  
  
"The one? What do you mean, sir?" I ask him. He smiles a little, almost exactly the way that Harm does.  
  
"The one to make my boy fall head over heels. He told you about the glimpse that I showed him." He says. I nod, a little surprised.  
  
"Yes, he did." I reply. He grins.  
  
"You didn't believe him." He says. I shake my head.  
  
"Not really, sir. I think he was just having a dream, like I'm having right now." I tell him. He laughs.  
  
"You're not one to beat around the bush, are you Mac? You never have been, in all the time you've been here with my son. But Mac, you should have seen him when I showed him what you two could be like together. I've never seen him like that about anything, not even flying. He loves you a lot." He says. I nod, looking at my feet.  
  
"I know that, sir. I love him too." I say. It's so strange to be talking to Harm's father about this in this dream.  
  
"Mac, I want to show you something too. A glimpse of your own, I guess you could call it." He says. I shake my head.  
  
"No thanks. Harm told me plenty about it. It did sound wonderful, but I don't think I would want to live it knowing that it wasn't real." I say to Dream Harm's Dad. He chuckles and shakes his head.  
  
"I'm not going to show you the same glimpse I showed Harm. Yours will be different. Very different." He says. Before I can reply, a bright light flashes before my eyes and I can barely make out Harm's father waving to me.  
  
---  
  
I sit up suddenly, my neck cramping. Looking around, I realize that I'm not in my bedroom, on my bed. I'm in a strange kitchen, sitting at the table I had just been asleep on.  
  
Where am I?  
  
"Sarah, I'm home." Mic's voice rings out through the house. I get up and wander out to meet him, startled when I see him finally. He looks about the same, but with a little bit of gray showing in his dark hair.  
  
"Hey, Mic." I say. He looks at me, and smiles a little.  
  
"Hey. How was your day?" He asks, walking past me to the refrigerator and grabbing a beer.  
  
"Uh, it was okay. How was yours?" I ask him. He shrugs.  
  
"All right. I'm going out with the guys, okay?" He says, taking a swig from the beer bottle. I don't really know what...  
  
"Yeah. Yeah..." I say, watching him sweep out of the kitchen and head to the bedroom, changing his clothes as I stand there with no idea of what's going on. I walk to the living room window and look outside.  
  
This isn't Washington. It's not a house, either. It's a condo in Sydney, Australia.  
  
Wow...  
  
"I'll be back later." Mic calls over his shoulder as he leaves the apartment. The door closes behind him and he's gone. I take a breath and wander over to the computer that sits on a desk in the living room, clicking on the Internet icon.  
  
As I wait for it to log on, I move the cursor down to the clock, and read the date that appears on the screen.  
  
April 7, 2008  
  
2008? Wow again...This glimpse kind of sucks.  
  
The Internet is on now, and I click on the e-mail icon, hoping that there's something interesting in here.  
  
My heart stops when I see the single message in my inbox.  
  
To: Sarah Brumby "macmarine45@aol.com" From: Harmon Rabb "flyboy1@aol.com" Subject: Missing You  
  
Hey Sarah. How're you doing? I know I haven't mailed you in a while, and I'm sorry. I've just been really busy with...JAG. There's really nothing else for me to be busy with. I feel so alone, Sarah, and I know I shouldn't be telling you this, since you're married and all, but I haven't felt the same since you left. I miss you a lot, and I wish you were here instead of halfway around the world.  
  
Now that that's off my chest, I'd better go. Mail me back when you can.  
  
Love, Your Flyboy  
  
Tears are in my eyes when I'm finished reading. A man that I've been away from for who knows how long is writing me about how much he misses me and how much I mean to him, and my own husband can't even hang around for five minutes after work before leaving to drink with his buddies?  
  
I close the e-mail and get up, looking around the apartment.  
  
"Where are you, Mister Rabb? I know you're there!" I shout, looking around for the deceased aviator. I look over at a corner of the room and see him, standing tall and proud, just like his son does.  
  
"You called, Mac?" He asks. I walk briskly to his corner of the room, angry and ready to do some damage.  
  
"Yeah I called. Who do you think you are, playing with my emotions like this?" I question, watching him as he raises his hands in a defensive posture.  
  
"I thought you were dreaming, Colonel. Wouldn't this be your fault?" He asks. I nod.  
  
"Yeah, this is only a dream. So how do I wake up?" I ask him. He shrugs.  
  
"If you think it's a dream, why don't you pinch yourself or something?" He asks. I nod, pinching my arm and expecting all of this to disappear. Nothing happens, except I hurt my arm. Harm's father grins smugly.  
  
"Oh, it's not working. Could that possibly mean that this is not a dream? That Harm was telling you the truth about having a glimpse? Hmm, interesting." Harmon Rabb, Sr. says, reminding me a lot of his son when he's gloating. I glare at him.  
  
"So this is a real glimpse. And it's your fault things are like this! Why?" I ask him. He shakes his head.  
  
"I didn't do this. You did. This is the reality of what happened in the parallel dimension Harm told you about. Here, you decided to go the safe way and marry Mic, instead of going with Harm. This is the way it is, Mac." He says. I shake my head.  
  
"There's no way my life can be like this." I tell him. He shrugs.  
  
"It wouldn't be, if you were married to my son." He says. I glare at him again.  
  
"You're biased, Mister Rabb." I say. He shrugs again.  
  
"Maybe I am. But you said yourself that you love Harm. I didn't have anything to do with that." He says. I'm getting a headache.  
  
"So this is all real, I'm in love with Harm, and if I marry Mic, which is the smart thing to do, I'll be trapped in a loveless marriage and still be in love with Harm?" I recap, looking intently at the ghost or angel or whatever he is that stands in front of me. He nods.  
  
"That sounds about right. So what do you think?" He asks. I shake my head.  
  
"Harm really saw a glimpse of he and I together?" I ask quietly. He nods.  
  
"He sure did. Do you want to see it?" He asks. I nod. He leads me to the couch, where we both sit down. He reaches over and grabs the remote, turning on the television. I'm about to ask what he's doing when I see what's on the screen.  
  
It's Harm and I, lying in a bed, sleeping. We both look a little older, my hair is longer. There's also something wrong with my body. It looks different. Harm wakes up, then looks over at me in my scant attire and looks surprised. It takes me a moment to realize that what I'm presently watching is my Harm in that parallel universe that he was telling me about earlier.  
  
Harm Sr. shows me the entire thing. The kissing, the attempt at a morning quickie, the kids...Close-ups of my face during the part after the children leave show the parallel me to be completely in love, and the emotion in my eyes surprises me. Harm seems overwhelmed, unable to stop touching and kissing me until the little boy comes back into the room, interrupting us. I smile at that part, watching the look on the boy's face when he sees his 'parents' kissing.  
  
As the parallel me goes to make the phone call about a baby-sitter, Harm looks around, searching for something unknown to me. He stops at a picture on the wall, which, upon closer inspection, appears to be one of he and I (the parallel us) on our wedding day. He looked so handsome.  
  
When I hear the brief exchange between Harm and his father, I can't help but get a little choked up. Harm looked so desperate to fix things, so in love...  
  
"Why?" I whisper, not looking away from the frozen image on the screen of Harm's handsome face. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Harm Sr.'s head turn toward me.  
  
"Why what?" He asks quietly. I shrug my shoulders.  
  
"Why all of this?" I ask, gesturing around the apartment. He sighs.  
  
"Mac, I love my son. And I want him to be happy. When I saw what he would be like if he didn't have you, I knew that I had to help you two along a little bit, because at the rate you are going in your world, you'll end up here and Harm will be alone. I had to at least give you a chance to get it right." He says. I look over at him when I hear the sadness in his voice.  
  
"Were you the one behind our first meeting?" I ask as the thought pops into my head. A sly Flyboy grin crosses his face, and he looks away from me.  
  
"I won't claim full responsibility, but I helped a little." He says. I suppress a smile, then remember the mess I'm in. The urge to smile fades quickly.  
  
"So now what?" I ask him. He looks at me.  
  
"Now you make your decision. Marry Mic, be with Harm, it's your choice. You've got to do what your heart tells you, Mac. I've been watching you for quite a while, too, and I worry about you sometimes." He says. My gaze turns questioning.  
  
"You've been watching me? For how long?" I ask. He leans forward, resting his forearms on his knees.  
  
"You've got to understand...Every person in the world has one person that they are made for, that they are meant to be with. After I died, I was able to discern that you were that person for my son, so I watched you, even before the two of you met. I watched as you struggled with your alcoholism, as you went through the Marines and law school, as you made a name for yourself. You can't imagine how excited I was the day that you and Harm finally met." He says, a fond smile on his face. I smile, too.  
  
"Really? Somehow, that makes me feel..." I trail off, unsure of what to say. He nods.  
  
"Safe?" He says, and I nod.  
  
"Yeah, safe. Exactly." I tell him, surprised that he knows. He sighs.  
  
"I knew that I couldn't let anything happen to you, because if you could never meet Harm, then you could never fall in love, and then he would have been unhappy. I helped you out a few times." He says, looking at the television screen. A moment of clarity is upon me, and suddenly I realize that he's right.  
  
"You kept me alive in the car wreck when Eddie died, didn't you?" I ask him softly. He looks at me, then stands up, nodding.  
  
"Yes. Yes I did." I'm silent, absorbing all that I've just been told. Then something hits me.  
  
"Harm and I are meant to be together?" I ask the man in front of me. He nods.  
  
"Mmm-hmm." I look at him, skeptical.  
  
"Then why aren't we together by now? You could keep me alive in the car wreck but you can't make us work things out?" I ask him. He shakes his head.  
  
"I'm not God. I've only got so much I can do. Keeping you alive is the extent of my influence, besides doing the glimpse thing. I couldn't make you two see what was right in front of you. I couldn't make Harm kiss you on the ferry. That's the part you have to work out yourselves." He says, shoving his hands in his pockets. I nod.  
  
"I understand." I say quietly. He takes a breath, which I'm sure he doesn't need to do, then looks at me.  
  
"So, you ready to go back to your own world?" He asks. I nod.  
  
"Yeah. I'm ready to get out of here." I say. He nods and bites his lower lip.  
  
"So, where am I taking you? Mic's place or Harm's?" He asks. I sigh and look him squarely in the eye.  
  
"Mic's."  
  
------  
  
Mic's door appears in front of me, and I brace my hand on it to keep from falling as I regain my balance. Being transported in time and space can throw you off a little. Knocking on the door, I pull the ring off my finger and hold it in my hand.  
  
The second Mic opens the door, he knows.  
  
I sigh again and square my shoulders, prepared for what I have to do now.  
  
------  
  
A sigh of contentment escapes my lips as I settle into Harm's arms, leaning into him and intensely enjoying the warmth of him behind me.  
  
"So my dad showed you a glimpse, huh?" He breathes into my ear. I nod, leaning my head back on his shoulder.  
  
"You'll never believe it..."  
  
I tell the story of the glimpse and his father looking over us, relating it to Harm and making sure he knows what a great man his father really is. I never really had a true hero before, but now I think I do. Thank you, Mister Rabb.  
  
-------------------- AN2: Well, there it is. Hope you liked it, and if you didn't, I'm sorry for disappointing you. I don't really believe in the whole 'dead watching over the living' thing, but that's the way that the story took me, so I ran with it. Hope you liked it.  
  
- 


End file.
